Support MotionSensors to turn screen off

[smerschjohann]

it would be nice if the ImmichFrame app can auto turn off the display, when no motion is detected.

I made a quick patch for the Nixplay frame that has a Motion Sensor. But the way, I implemented it, it would hardly couple the hardware which is not ideal.

Still this feature might come handy for various custom hardware or even external sensors that one can use for this purpose.

What do you think about a BroadcastReceiver in the ImmichFrame app, that listens for "Motion detected" messages, this way the app could handle these events and turn the screen off, if those messages aren't received for a configured period of time.

Another approach could be to create a small HTTP service inside of the app, and send the "keepalive" messages that way. This would also allow systems like Home-Assistant or others, to provide the given state. E.g. "light is on", "mobile phone presence" etc.

If you like the idea of any of those, I can provide a PR for that.

[3rob3]

I'm not sure how to handle this, while keeping the app generic enough for all devices. I think I like the BroadcastReceiver option the best. But how would that work for the Nixplay frame you mention?

[encodedLife]

This would be a fantastic feature to have!
At the moment, I'm using Frameo solely because it supports this specific sensor.

It might be feasible to implement it using one of the following Android sensor types:
https://source.android.com/docs/core/interaction/sensors/sensor-types?hl=en

[smerschjohann]

Sorry that I did not respond earlier, had some busy days at the moment.

My suggestion for the implementation would be that we define a custom Intent for that purpose, which the ImmichFrame application just listens on. If there is already a common Intent on Android then we could use that instead.

On the NixPlay frame, I would just create a small system apk that communicates with the sensor over GPIO using a JNI library. I already know how that works, and would not be really hard to do. For other devices a similar apk would be necessary to support it. This way it would mean: Install the generic ImmichFrame apk and install a Android device specific additional apk that provides the sensor state via Broadcast Intent.

[3rob3]

No problem. Yeah there was another request for this on Discord, and I think the best option is run a small http server in the app (NanoHTTPD maybe?) that listens on a port for two http requests like:
http://AndroidDeviceIP:port/dim
http://AndroidDeviceIP:port/undim
Then simply call the dimming method from that. This seems like a pretty universal way and should work with most automations i would think.

I started on this path already, are you cool with that implementation?

[smerschjohann]

That was one of the alternatives I mentioned in the initial post and yes totally ok with it. And I agree, it is the most flexible variant that should work for everone in an easy way. You could even add other RPC calls later on like "next image", "previous image", "change album" or "show custom text at position" etc.

How do you want to do the "dimming"? In another app, I get a wakelock while "not dimmed" and just release it when it should turn off the screen.

[3rob3]

I already have dimming implemented (currently by user set time frame) so i can just call that same method. I have this http server working already, I can create a PR for it if you want to review.

Since as far as i could find you can't easily "wake" Android without special permissions, or user interaction, i set screen brightness the lowest allowed (0.01f), then overlay a black View on top (to stop the slight screen bleed). i also stop all timers and background work so it is as idle as can be.

[yo-less]

I just want to add that your current dimming feature is exceptionally well done. The screen goes completely dark - like you said, no screen bleed at all, amazing work!
@3rob3 The original Nixplay framework enables the clock during the "dimmed hours", are you open to an enhancement request regarding that?
Apart from that: Thanks to both of you, I'll create another video on the state of the new ImmichFrame app and focusing on ImmichFrame alone, should you both be able to pull this off.

[3rob3]

The original Nixplay framework enables the clock during the "dimmed hours", are you open to an enhancement request regarding that?

That's a neat idea, let me think about that and how it could best be done

[3rob3]

PR created if you want to review

[smerschjohann]

Since as far as i could find you can't easily "wake" Android without special permissions, or user interaction, i set screen brightness the lowest allowed (0.01f), then overlay a black View on top (to stop the slight screen bleed). i also stop all timers and background work so it is as idle as can be.

you can with a wakelock (at least on older Android devices). I do exactly that with this code snippet:

public class PowerUtils {
    private final PowerManager.WakeLock wakeLock;
    private final PowerManager powerManager;

    public PowerUtils(Context context) {
        powerManager = context.getSystemService(PowerManager.class);
        wakeLock = powerManager.newWakeLock(PowerManager.SCREEN_BRIGHT_WAKE_LOCK | PowerManager.ACQUIRE_CAUSES_WAKEUP, "PowerUtils");
        wakeUp();
    }

    public void goToSleep() {
        if (wakeLock.isHeld()) {
            wakeLock.release();
        }
    }

    public void wakeUp() {
        if(!wakeLock.isHeld()) {
            wakeLock.acquire(10 * 60 * 1000L /*10 minutes*/);
        }
    }
}

PR created if you want to review

I will have a look!

[3rob3]

Yeah I looked into that, my Google and ChatGpt research said it wouldn't work on newer Android versions so I didn't go further. I/they could be wrong though!

[smerschjohann]

Very nice. I will create a dedicated APK for the nixplay frame.. probably tomorrow, which will support that new API of yours!